Definition of Pronouns

    Definition of Pronouns

 pronouns in English short stories

    Possessive pronouns in English are not a clearly defined category and various grammar books treat them differently. The problem arises from the fact that there exist two sets of English possessive pronouns: the first being pronouns with a determinative function and therefore dependent on the noun, the second being pronouns used independently as a noun phrase (Onderková ,2009,p7).  

    The primary narrative style is the first person narrative in ‘The Mark on the Wall’, and the third person narrative in ‘Kew Gardens’. The personal pronouns used in each narrative style show the difference as with the different narrative style in each story: the first person pronoun which refers to the narrator directly, and the other uses the third person pronouns in order to refer to the characters but never refers to the narrator in order to be ‘impersonal’ and indirect.iii The following excerpts from each story exhibit the basic narrative styles : )

1(Perhaps it was the middle of January in the present year that I first looked up and saw the mark on the wall. In order to fix the date it is necessary to remember what one saw. So I now think of the fire; the steady film of yellow light upon the page of my book‘ .…The Mark on the Wall’ [MW] 77)iv )

2(Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily,’ he thought . )Kew Gardens’ [KG] 84‘( The first person pronoun in (1) refers to the presenter of the thought, and the italicised verbs indicate the ‘present’ moment (i.e. the event time) in which the I-narrator is thinking and watching the mark on the wall 5 starting to wonder what the mark is simultaneously. The verbs such as was and saw in the first sentence indicate the simple past tense and suggest that the ‘present’ moment for the narrator ,who refers to the self with I, was after January of ‘the present year’. These personal pronouns and the verb tenses exhibit a personal point of view, and the purpose of the story is not to transmit events in a narration but to represent the thoughts of the narrator who exists as a character in the story (Asaka,2010, 46 ).

     Reference grammars of English standardly divide pronouns into subsets, one of which is the set of personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, we, they (and their corresponding object and genitive forms). The personal pronouns are typically deictic and referential, especially in the 1st and 2nd person. That is, "the Ist person forms refer to the speaker/writer, while the 2nd person refers to the addressee or a group including at least one addressee but not speaker/writer". Impersonal pronouns include one and morphologi- cally complex forms ending with one, e.g. anyone, someone, everyone. Imperson- al pronouns, like personal pronouns, refer to one or more persons, but no specific person is picked out in contrast to the personal pronouns. Gramma- rians, however, have also standardly acknowledged that there are some deviations. Thus, Jespersen (1909) comments: "English has no pronoun for the generic person", which is expressed by passives, we, you, they, one, or a substantive denoting a person preceded by the indefinite article; "in we, the speaker includes himself, often with a certain humility", and you is "distinctly colloquial in tone" . 

   Huddleston says that the "generic" you is "a stylistically less formal variant of non-deictic one" , and that it need not include the addressee in its reference, nor is the speaker excluded. A precise characterization of these generic pronouns, however,  has not been attempted often, and our aim is to provide one.( Kitagawa. 1990.740) .

2. Types of Pronouns 

 First of all, it is important to note that English pronouns have gender. For the feminine part we use: she, her, hers; for the masculine: he or his and for the neuter we can use: it or its. When it comes to the plural forms, we no longer have gender delimitation, but we have person delimitation: 1st, 2nd and 3rd In English there are 8 types of pronouns: the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the possessive pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, the reciprocal pronoun. As I mentioned in the abstract, there is another category of pronouns – the intensive pronouns. In some grammar books they are treated separately while in others the characteristics of the intensive pronouns are listed at the reflexive pronouns. The situation is quite tricky because intensive pronouns have the same form as the reflexive ones. The only difference is that they add emphasis to the situation that you describe :e.g. Mark wanted to see if he could cook so, he bought himself a lot of ingredients. (In this situation the emphasis is on Mark and on what he can do for himself. As a pronoun – himself is considered an intensive pronoun in this situation)

 1. The English personal pronouns are probably, the most used ones and the forms are :I, you, he/ she, we, you, they. A clearer classification of English personal pronouns looks like this :For the 1 st person: I singular (used as subject), me (used as object). The plural form: we (subject), us (object) and mine or ours for the possessive case .For the 2nd person singular and plural we have the pronoun: you. The possessive case uses  yours .The 3rd person may be the most complex one because it has gender. As I mentioned before, for the feminine we have she, for the masculine he and for the neuter it. The plural form is used for every gender: they. We use them for object accusative and theirs for the possessive case . 

2. Another type of pronoun is the demonstrative pronoun. In English, this pronoun has four forms: this, that (for the singular) and these, those (for the plural). This type of pronoun is used to point out a certain thing or person. We use this for the thing/ the person who is closer to us, in our vicinity (here); while that is used for something or someone who is far, at a bigger distance :e.g. That boy plays in the park. (In this case the demonstrative pronoun that means the boy is over there, he is not close to us). The same rules apply for the plural forms of the demonstrative pronouns: these and those .These is used for something that is close to us, while those for something that is far from us :e.g: This is our new house. Do you like it? / That was their proposal. You either accept it or not. / What are these on the table? / Those pencils are on the last shelf , unfortunately, I can’t reach them . 

3. The interrogative pronouns – are used to ask questions. Pronouns like: who, what ,which, whom and whose are interrogative :e.g.: Who came to see you ?What is the name of that song ?Which is your favourite actor Ben Affleck or Brad Pitt ?To whom did you tell about our plan ?Whose is it? (The answer: This scarf is beautiful) 

4. The possessive pronouns are used to emphasis one’s possession over something or someone. These pronouns indicate ownership and their forms are: 1 st ( person: mine singular)/ ours (plural), 2nd person: yours (singular)/ yours (plural), 3rd person : 8 his/hers (singular)/ theirs (plural). The possessive pronouns have a unique characteristic: their form is quite similar to the possessive determiners like: my, yours ,his/ hers… etc. Unlike possessive pronouns, the possessive determiners appear before a noun and they can’t replace it : e.g.: (Possessive pronoun). That cat is mine. / This house will be ours/ That book is his. / Those shoes were hers . (Possessive determiners) This is my cat. / This is our house. / That was his wallet .

 5. The relative pronouns are used when we want to introduce relative clauses. The relative pronouns from English are: who, that, whom, which. Here is how we use English relative pronouns :e.g. who – These are the men who made that project . that – She saw the dress that I want to buy. whom- The women (whom/who) were present at that show received small gifts from the organizers .which – The movie which is so popular among teenagers can’t be seen on the Internet.

 6 . Another type of English pronouns is represented by the reflexive pronouns. In order to form this type of pronoun we need to add the word - self to the personal pronouns in the singular form :e.g.my – myself: I see myself visiting that city in the next two years .you –yourself: You saw yourself in the mirror in that new dress .He – himself / she- herself: He bought himself a nice car. / She bought herself a dress for the party .The reflexive pronoun has 3 alternatives for the plural: for the 1st person plural We see ourselves visiting that city . 2nd person: Can you make yourselves some coffee while I attend this meeting ?  3rd person: They made themselves comfortable after I left . To conclude, this type of pronoun- the reflexive one – is used to clarify or to emphasis who or what is referred to, who makes the action and it is used in the object position when the object and the subject are the same . As I mentioned in the abstract of this article, there is no difference in form between the reflexive and the intensive pronoun. Because they have identical forms it can be difficult to differentiate between the reflexive pronoun and the intensive one .Nevertheless, we have to keep in mind that intensive pronouns are used only to emphasis something or someone. Moreover, several English grammar books don’t even mention this category . 

7. As a general rule, we find the intensive pronoun right after the noun that it determines and as an exception – we can also find the intensive pronoun apart from the noun that it proceeds. The major difference between a reflexive and an intensive pronoun is that the intensive one isn’t essential to the sentence’s meaning :e.g. The teacher herself highlighted the mistakes from your English test( .Intensive pronoun) – This sentence can keep its exact same meaning even if we erase the pronoun herself: The teacher highlighted the mistakes from your English test .The same applies for the other examples with intensive pronouns . The engineer went to check the wires himself. (Intensive pronoun )I’ll finish this article myself. (Intensive pronoun )We offered to clean the house ourselves. (Intensive pronoun )A simple way of differentiating between an intensive and a reflexive pronoun is to check if the forms: myself, yourself, himself, herself… etc, can be omitted from the sentence. The intensive pronoun can be omitted because it is used only for emphasis ,therefore it does not affect the meaning of the sentence. The reflexive pronoun can’t be omitted from the sentence :You saw 10 yourself in the mirror in that new dress. / You saw in the mirror that new dress. (In this case, the omission of the reflexive pronoun changes the meaning of the sentence completely. We, therefore, have two different sentences . 

8. Moving on, another type of pronouns is represented by the indefinite ones. These pronouns refer to persons or things in a general way. The indefinite pronouns don’t refer to someone in particular:e.g. One can succeed if the interview is passed. / Many of them saw it as an excuse to abandon the project. Some are already in the classroom. / All paid attention to the speaker .Other forms of indefinite pronouns can be formed by using four base words to which we add: body, one, thing .e.g.: 

 1. every -: everybody, everyone, everything .

 2.some -: somebody, someone, something 

3. Any -: anybody, anyone, anything . 

4.No - : nobody, no one, nothing . Indefinite pronouns that are formed with every- can be used for a complete quantity, those indefinite pronouns formed with some – can be used to express an indefinite quantity and those that begin with no- are used in affirmative sentences that have a negative meaning :e.g.: Here is everything that you need for this salad. (You have all the ingredients ).I think somebody tried to open the door. (You don’t know exactly who, or how many )In that place there is nothing to visit. (Even if the sentence is affirmative, it has a negative meaning .)In addition, whoever, whatever, other, each, few, none, and any, are also indefinite pronouns . 

9. Reciprocal pronouns express a mutual relationship or action. English language has only two reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another : e.g: They offered each other gifts for their birthdays .They support one another in every situation .Conclusions In English, pronouns are an important part of speech. Pronouns can function as nouns, they can replace nouns and they can also be the subject of a sentence. English pronouns are used when we have to avoid repetition, when we want to emphasis something, when we have to introduce relative clauses andwhen we want to ask something .As for grammar, English pronouns are similar in functions with nouns .

    Therefore, it is important for any English learner to be able to identify and to use correctly: the English noun, the English pronoun, the English verb, adverb and so on .Each part of speech helps the user of English to construct his/ her sentences properly. To know grammar, no matter the language, means to be able to speak and to write grammatically correct. This proves that you are an educated person .To conclude, grammar has the aim:”to turn skilful pupils into skilful users of English grammar. Learning English grammar means to achieve the skill of building personal correct structures in English”(Stoian,2023,p94,95,96).

Reference

• Stoian, Andreea Mihaela. "Pronouns in English Language." Revista de Stiinte Politice 80 (2023): 92-98.
•  Asaka, Kanako. "Figuring out ‘who tells the story’from the personal pronoun—the use of one in Virginia Woolf’s short stories—." people 2 (2010): 2.
• Onderková, Kristýna. Possessive Pronouns in English and Czech Works of Fiction. Their Use with Parts of Human Body and Translation. Diss. Master’s thesis. Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Brno, 2009.